Tag Archives: gluten free travel

I’ve said before, I believe in my own dang book, that one can travel anywhere in the United States and still eat safely gluten-free. And while my challenging time in Oklahoma last week made me reexamine that declaration, I will stand by it. I COULD have camped out at Wal-Mart and eaten loads of gluten-free snacks. I also could have only eaten milk shakes all week. Things I considered, but rejected for health, time and good citizen reasons. Instead I ventured out into the restaurant world and, well, it didn’t always go fantastic like. But sometimes it did! Here are my OK wins and OK fails, gluten-free style. Continue reading →

This girl turned 9 last week, and I couldn’t think of any better birthday for my Harry Potter obsessed gal than a trip to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter right smack in the middle of Universal Florida. Yes, we do live within spitting distance of Universal Studios in Hollywood, but they don’t have the Potter. Yes, it was slightly embarrassing when people asked where we were from and we had to tell them we lived next door to Universal in LA but chose to spend loads of money flying across the country and staying at a hotel and getting our wizard on. But you know what? Who cares! It was this much fun –

Also, the night we were there Olivia Freaking Newton-John was in concert and she totally nailed our favorite Xanadu songs. I might have just flown to Orlando to see that lady rock it out. And taking my daughter to her first real concert where we both knew all the words to the songs? Ummmm-azing.

What’s always not so amazing when I travel is the getting sick factor on account of not knowing my arse from a gluten filled airport meal. Luckily, I had some guides in the form of GFOrlando and Eating Out Without so I knew I’d be able to swill Butterbeer, if I so chose. I did so choose. So did she – Continue reading →

There was a period of my life where I decided the best way to fuel up between running hither and yon was to chow on Luna bars and drink Vitamin water. While I’ve since balanced out my life (my eating life, anyway), I have missed the delicious Luna S’mores bar ever since my celiac diagnosis, aka, the darkest day in the history of my waffle maker.

Those dark days just got a little bit brighter, folks.

It’s totally true that Luna Bars are now 100% gluten-free! All of them! Yep, you can get your Lemon Zest, your Chocolate Cupcake, your Iced Oatmeal Raisin ALL GLUTEN-FREE. Do you know how you know your Luna is GF? There’s this adorbs pink circle on every package saying so. BAM.

I’ll be loading up on all of these bad boys, because I’ve figured out three awesome ways to utilize an entire stash of gluten-free Lunas. And you can too! If you head over to Luna, check out the delicious flavors, and let me know in the comments which flavor(s) you’re most excited to try, you could be the lucky winner of Luna samples. Just in time for holiday travel. Srsly, you need this in your go-bag.

I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve started the official eating season off with a bang. I’ll be putting my vegan’ness on a part-time schedule, as there is much dairy and meat to be had. Much. Gluten-free mac and cheese, I’m talking to you.

I discovered even more goodness last Friday when the family decided to be adventurous and head outside of our neighborhood. Hey, it’s LA. It’s not easy to explore. I mean, unless you have a car. Which we do. Nevermind. Let’s just say I left my neighborhood and found some things.

Look, I know it’s dumb to a) walk into a bakery, and b) expect that one of the most famous bakeries in America would be all, “Oh, you bet. EVERYTHING is gluten-free.” But I was waiting on my kid to finish her Saturday morning class and right down that very street was the incredibly delicious La Brea Bakery. And all up in it’s new digs!

Not unlike that time I was craving burritos and so I went to the burrito place knowing I could not have them, I just walked on into La Brea Bakery like I owned the place. Which I do not. Perhaps I was buoyed by my last trip into the bakery when it was just a lil’ ol’ bakery and they offered gluten-free macaroons. I thought, well, at least they have one thing I can eat. I was also assuming that even if he laughed at me, the waiter would know what had gluten and what did not. This, I was wrong about.

Do you ever feel, sometimes, like the whiniest person in the universe? Sure, we’ve got a disease and it makes us quite miserable, but I have to say every time I read the comments here, go to a celiac conference, or just read my FB feed, I realize—damn, girl, you’re lucky! After all, my diagnosis was like, in five minutes, my family has been nothing but (mostly) supportive, and my kids are ALL IN on gluten-free pizza. Most of my vacations have been pretty great, as it seems I blow it on my last day. So when I got this email, holy marymotherofgod, WHAT HAPPENED TO THIS WOMAN????

Luckily, Sharone at The Gut Reaction has a helluva sense of humor. So not only can we LEARN from her incredibly horrific family vacation to the Dominican Republic, but laugh. Just a little. You guys, it was horrible. Here’s a snippet: Continue reading →

It was a busy weekend at the Celiac Disease Foundation Conference and Expo in Pasadena, you guys. Yes, that’s my “snack basket” I have set up on our counter filled with delicious gluten-free treats. I also have a cabinet-full of gluten-free mixes, flours and other gluten-free delights because every freaking gluten-free company was there. And they had kick ass free stuff for those of us who are used to spending an entire paycheck on that biz.

I was there to blog about it, to hang out with other gluten-free super cool bloggers, and to talk to as many people as possible about my upcoming gluten-free trip to Ireland because it’s awesome, and you should come, and you should just start packing because AWESOME. Fill out this form and vacation with me. That. Simple. Huzzah!!!

In case you were wondering what else I was doing at the CDF Expo, well, I’ll tell ya’. There were basically 7 things I learned/loved/did that you should know about as well. They are: